Carla Smith

MA, CNM, FHIMSS

Carla Smith is an advisor at StarBridge Advisors, LLC. She provides Strategic Growth consulting for health clients. She understands the motivations, needs, and wants of the health ecosystem and applies these insights with CEOs, boards, the C-suite, and policymakers to make organizations thrive and dominate their market position. She works with professional services firms, private equity and venture capital companies, healthcare delivery organizations, associations, health services firms, and early and mid-stage companies.

For 17 years, Carla served as HIMSS EVP, the global thought leader supporting the transformation of health through information and technology. While at HIMSS, she led US and Canadian strategies, establishing HIMSS as a powerhouse change agent in both the public and private sectors.

Carla’s professional network is uniquely broad and deep. She has worked with health sector CEOs, C-suite, and partners for the bulk of her career in the provider, vendor, payer, association, foundation, disrupter, and consulting components of the private sector, and key policymakers in the public sector. She excels in leading organizations towards the right strategic direction and achieving ROI. Carla uncovers the strategy to propel a successful business evolution or expansion, equips leaders for realistic and assertive ROI and expectations, and analyzes failures so executives can apply lessons learned and move forward positively. She seeks and welcomes all voices at the table, leveraging the assets of small and large organizations for benefit of the people, businesses, and causes they serve. Carla knows how to craft strategies that succeed.

In 2017, 2018, and 2019, Health Data Management named Carla as one of the most powerful women thought leaders in health IT. In 2015, she received similar recognition from Fierce Healthcare. She blogs regularly on PharmaBoardroom, Health Data Management, and LinkedIn.

She holds an appointment to the CMS Outreach and Education FACA, is a member of the Learning Health Community Board, serves as an advisor to the University of Michigan’s Learning Health Sciences program, and is a publicly-elected President Pro Tem for the Village of Barton Hills, Michigan. Carla holds a master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University, a Non-profit Management Certification from Case Western Reserve University, and is a HIMSS Fellow.